Quentin Tarantino has a stable of familiar actors he works with, but for his latest film, “Django Unchained,” the director switched it up, casting two actors he’s never worked with before for prominent roles: Jamie Foxx as the lead and Leonardo DiCaprio as the villain (arguably there are lots of new faces including Kerry Washington, Don Johnson and more).

Tarantino was on Charlie Rose recently and the talk show host asked about how he came to work with DiCaprio and then segued into another question: he was suprised that Tarantino’s never worked with actor Johnny Depp, who like DiCaprio, is one of the biggest name actors in the world. Maybe not so surprisingly, Tarantino said he and Depp have discussed working together in the past and hope to do so some time in the future.

“We would love to work together. We’ve talked about it for years,” Tarantino said of Depp. “Not that we get together and talk about it for years, but from time to time. We’re obviously fans of each other. It just needs to be the right character. I just need to write the right character that I think Johnny would be the right guy to do it with. And if he agrees, then we’ll do it. And then it’ll be magical. I haven’t written the perfect character for Johnny Depp as of yet. Maybe someday I will, maybe someday I won’t. We’ll see.”

When asked about who else is on his to-work-with wishlist, Tarantino said Meryl Streep and Michael Caine. Wouldn’t that be something to see Streep in a QT film?

Interestingly enough, much like we assumed when we first read the “Django Unchained” script, Tarantino says he originally envisioned a much older Calvin Candie character (the villain that Leonard DiCaprio plays). The filmmaker said he had an actor in mind, but didn’t name him, but it turns out he was too old in the end. “It was supposed to be for an older guy,” Tarantino said about writing the Candie role. “I kind of had somebody in mind when I was writing it, but me being me, I forget that the last time I saw them was in 1991 and it’s actually been twenty years since then. [So] I had a rude awakening. He’s kind of a really old man and not really what I was thinking about.”

I wonder what kind of quirky hat and weird make-up he would use in a Tarantino film. Also, what kind of affected accent.

Johnny Depp strikes me as the type of actor that Tarantino could write a really good character for, and not just re-hash the goofy eccentric character that Depp has been playing in many of his films. Like what he did with DiCaprio in Django, I can see him bring out a side of Depp’s acting abilities we aren’t used to seeing.

That Tarantino’s a fan is kind of surprising since she didn’t and doesn’t appear in a lot of films that Tarantino has talked about liking (though he’s a Woody Allen fan and Streep’s in Manhattan).

Meryl Streep is more known for great performances, not starring in great films. Tarantino is very analytical about films and can admire an actor or performance (or another aspect of a film) even if he thinks the rest of the film is garbage.

I don’t think Streep’s interested in supporting roles (possibly a reason why she turned down Hershey’s role in Black Swan).

I can see why she turned down the role though. There wasn’t enough “meat” to that character, as it was the least-developed character of the film. I enjoyed what Hershey did with it (and it was good for her at this point of her career) but it was poorly written in comparison to Portman and Kunis’ characters.

Re-watched Out of Africa the other day — it’s perhaps one of the least “flashy” roles she’s ever been nominated for. It’s the lead part, but it’s not the kind of scenery chewing we’re used to her delivering now. I’m more likely to revisit films based on the whole (and stuff like Devil Wear’s Prada/Julie and Julia are completely bland when she isn’t on screen) so I hope she works on more cohesive films.

Jeebus, guys. She doesn’t mind supporting role when it’s a meaty one. She recently agreed to do “The Horseman” which is meaty supporting role. No actor minds doing supporting role when it’s a good role.